Thursday, September 29, 2016

Prisoners, Maoists, students to write Gandhi Peace Exams on October 2

Around 450 jail inmates of Maharashtra and 90 surrendered Maoists in Chhattisgarh will join around 1.70 lakh students to write the annual Gandhi Peace Exam to mark the 147th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

The exams shall be conducted across the state by Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal to give the jail inmates and Maoists an opportunity to feel a sense of remorse by inculcating moral values, peace, truth and non-violence propounded by Mahatma Gandhi.

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Sarvodaya Mandal to promote Gandhian value through books

In its efforts to promote Ghandhian values, Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal will sell over 200 books written by Mahatma Gandhi and Acharya Vinoba on low prices from October 2 onwards at the Gandhi Book Centre here.

On the occasion of 147th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, about 200 titles on and by the Gandhiji, Vinobaji and Sarvodaya will be sold at up to 50 per cent discount by Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal.

The books would be on sale from October 3 to 11 (except on Sunday) at Gandhi Book Centre in Nana Chowk.

Gandhi Searches for Truth is subtitled, A Practical Biography for Children, and that is exactly what it is. It uses the lens of Gandhi’s search for truth to walk children through the spiritual highpoints of Gandhiji’s life and unfold its great significance, emphasizing its power to inspire them in their own searches. It therefore fills an important niche, on at least two levels: it is informative on one of the greatest, if not the greatest person of the 20th Century, which is covered very inadequately if at all outside of India (and not always with the needed sensitiveness anywhere). It also inspires and empowers children, in the best Montessori spirit, which can be vitally needed in this dispiriting world. As information it fills a space left by, for example, Sri Eknath Easwaran’s Gandhi the Man, which takes a similar spiritual approach but is designed for high-school children and adults.

Monday, September 19, 2016

A total of 55 surrendered Naxals who had dozens of murder and arson cases registered against them have fared very well in an exam on Gandhi’s life and principles conducted by Gadchiroli police.In an effort to reform prisoners, the Maharashtra jail authorities conduct classes on Gandhian philosophy with the help of NGOs in most prisons. After these classes, it holds the Gandhi Peace Exams to gauge the prisoners’ understanding of the philosophy. The exercise would help them in drifting away from violence.

Speaking on the endeavour, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Special Operations, Bipin Bihari said the surrendered Naxals were given lectures on Gandhian philosophy and an exam on the same was conducted in the month of August.

“Naxalites are waging a war against the state and we are trying to stimulate an ideology which shuns violence and preaches non-violence,” Bihari told The Indian Express.

“In order to draw the cadre to the Naxal fold, they are made to believe that armed revolution is the most effective solution. However, by introducing the Gandhian philosophy we are trying to instill the idea that demands could be met through non-violent means or ‘ahimsa’ (non-violence) which Gandhi preached and practised,” Bihari added.

Monday, September 12, 2016

Gandhi Journal Article-III ( September 2016 )

Thanatos, Terror and Tolerance: An Analysis of Terror Management Theory and a Possible Contribution by Gandhi

By Kuruvilla Pandikattu SJ and Gini George

Gandhian description of Swaraj as the "abandonment of the fear of death" is the point of departure of this article. Following the cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker, the relationship between death, terror and our ability to tolerate others who live or think differently from us is discussed. For this purpose, the Terror Management Theory of Death as elaborated by scholars in the last thirty years is examined closely. Besides outlining some of the main insights of Terror Management Theory (TMT), the paper highlights the challenge that Gandhi offers to it through his life and death. In spite of the terror that is caused by the awareness of our own death (Thanatos) and the corresponding tendency towards intolerance, there are some people, like Gandhi, who can look directly at death and still practise tolerance.

Give Nonviolence a Chance is a treasure trove of articles that showcase the peace initiatives and nonviolent campaigns of the peace activist, author, educator and philosopher, Neelakanta Radhakrishnan who devoted his entire life to the cause of peace and nonviolence and in reinterpreting and restructuring Gandhi's Peace Army, the Shanti Sena. Edited by Anoop Swarup, an internationally known scholar and peace activist and Chair, Center for Global Nonkilling, the book provides an inside view of several major campaigns.

Monday, September 5, 2016

Gandhi Journal Article-II ( September 2016 )

Kabir and Gandhi as Apostles of Human Unity
Transcending Religion and Caste-based Distinctions

By Saral Jhingran

Kabir asserted the
basic unity of all human beings not on the basis of some spiritual hypothesis
of God's immanence in every heart, but on a very rational and scientific basis.
Shorn of conventional man-made distinctions, basically, all human beings are
the same, according to him. He derives a morality of compassion and
non-violence from his basic thesis of unity of all living beings. The paper
argues that Kabir's vision of the essential unity of all human beings can
provide an idealistic foundation to all our efforts at both the resolution of
mutual conflicts and restoring dignity to the downtrodden. The Mahatma's
interpretation of the same vision gives us two messages which can contribute to
realizing the above goals. They are: sincere religious toleration of and
respect for other faiths on the basis of a frank acknowledgement of the
possible faults of our own religion; and the need to see the 'Divine' in the
hearts of the 'dumb millions', which must in turn lead us to the service of
those millions as the only way to realize the 'Divine' in our hearts.

Friday, September 2, 2016

Gandhi Journal Article-I ( September 2016 )

Decentralized Political Order: The Gandhian Perspective

By Ramashray Roy

This paper discusses the rationale of local democracy by looking at the democratic discourse surrounding the usefulness and limits of the representative form. Stalwarts like Jefferson called for the creation of ‘elementary republics’ by dividing counties into wards. Such intimate communities are not only a more reliable means of addressing public problems, but also avenues of the inner growth of the citizens in self-responsibility. This means reversing the pyramid of authority and power. The Gandhian scheme of decentralized political order is more than a technical device; it is, at one and the same time, an institutional strategy for facilitating and sustaining spiritual regeneration of human existence in the backdrop of a simple economy based on limitation of wants.